Artist Notes #2

Comic 11 - Artist Notes #2

Author Notes:

A few things I should clarify. It probably wasn't the ban itself which did it, but rather, a series of events which slowly wore me down, with the ban being the straw which broke my back, sending me into a dark spiral of depression.

Yeah, not a pleasant place to be, and it's not good working conditions. Ironically enough, I was perfectly in-character for Kinas, being that I was consumed by hatred, bitterness, sadness, and despair, which is exactly the kind of thing you're going to see from him. (Sorry, yes, that's a minor spoiler, but you already know he's fallen from Chaotic Good to Chaotic Evil by the time of the start of my comic.)

It's just that it's not the type of place where I really should (or even can) do much of anything comic-wise.

And it's not that I don't care about my TVTropes page. I do. I really, really do. And I honestly believe it's being butchered, that I know my own comic better than the people "improving" the article by "correcting" my "mistakes" on the page.

It's just that I think that this is actually in its own twisted way a good thing. It ensures that--rather than edits being my doing--any and all future edits to the comic page are because of people who actually HAVE read the comic and being impressed by it enough to work on my page.

More than that, it removes temptation for me to get lost on TVTropes. No longer possessing the ability to edit anything, I've also lost my drive to browse for things.

Meaning, time I woulda spent on TVTropes can instead be directed elsewhere, meaning I can make more productive use of my time.

Still, though, I don't like what's being done. You can see the edit history here, and just how much has been removed since my last edit. I could compile a very long list of things they shouldn't have edited but have.

The main two were the things I brought up in the comic. In the article, a lot of emphasis was deleted. Thing is, a lot of said emphasis came directly from the comic itself. It's like a character (let's just say Aria) says the line, "I am notamused.", and the page then saying, "Aria was not amused."
To my mind, that's how it should be done, because reducing/eliminating the emphasis makes the sentence lose its meaning.

The other being removing "Your Milage May Vary" items, thinking I was "abusing" the invoked tag. This is covered pretty well in the comic itself, in that there is no abuse.

The comment in the comic is a bit ambiguous. On the discussion page, I explicitly say to do two things:
-Read the comic before making assumptions about tropes, and
-Ask me about a trope you think doesn't belong, and I can explain exactly why it does.

The first is just common freakin' sense, but it's plainly obvious they're ignoring it, because if they had read the webcomic, they'd know that things like Character Alignment are fundamental parts of the setting, and that Chaotic Evil, Lawful Good, and the like are set-in-stone with no mileage varying at all, as they're explicitly Word of God.

Which ties into the second. I pride myself on being a good troper. (Well, prided.) I did my research, each and every time. I made sure when checking out every trope on the page that it fit. I checked, and I double-checked. I spent literally hours (in fact, the total number of hours means it's actually DAYS work of solid work) making sure each trope applied.

So I can explain every trope, from Designated Hero to Character Alignment to It Runs In The Family to Uncanny Valley and so on, because I checked out those pages to make SURE they applied.

There were several times, in fact, that I thought of a Trope, but didn't add it because I did my research and found out it didn't mean what I thought, so I either abandoned it or got the appropriate trope.

So each and every trope on there was carefully researched, and having them removed because the people aren't reading the comic the page is for is...shall we say...incredibly frustrating.

Granted, yes, tropes change with time. Their names are altered, they get subtropes, tropes are merged, tropes are split, a trope which once meant one thing can later come to mean another, and the site's constantly evolving, but it's not MY fault that happens.

Anyway, you might be wondering about Argus's rant, but it's actually perfectly within his character to do so.

Gods have access to TVTropes. It's a canonical part of the setting. (Note the emphasis. :P) Argus was briefly a God, so that's where he became Genre Savvy, but since he was so quickly nerfed, he was denied consistent access to TVTropes, so he's rather bitter about it.
Basically, as far as Argus is concerned, TVTropes goes hand-in-hand with the JerkAss Gods he thinks make up The Ascended.

Hence, his rant. I'll admit, I wasn't as calm as this comic suggests I was, but that was thanks mainly to other things piling on top of the edit suspension, but my comment in there is perfectly accurate; Argus's viewpoint is not my own, as I love TVTropes, and actually posted an appeal request.

It's just that I decided that's not the pathway I want to follow. I could, very easily. It's just something I've chosen not to follow through on. I haven't refreshed that tab since putting it in, so I don't know why they suspended me in the first place, nor if they'd be willing to lift it, 'cause I've decided that I don't really care why, and no longer feel the need to edit.

Oh, as for the bit about me being lazy, that's only semi-true. I've been working on the next part of the Kinas Chronicle, but it's actually proving somewhat-difficult. I'm trying to make Kinas look like an adult, incorporating features from his teen self, while putting a lot of David Smith in there, yet also showing how he can progress into the Kinas we know today.

Kinda difficult, but basically, trying to blend three completely separate character models into one single design taking aspects of each. I've mostly completed his face, but it's not quite finished, yet alone, his body.

After that, I'll need to design two more characters. They're characters who are in the comic already, but their designs in the past were different, and I need to convey this, somehow.

If I hadn't slacked off, it mighta been possible, but as it is, it wasn't. :P

Anyway, I'm mostly done with the next comic. Finished one of the two characters in the last panel.

Also, you'll note the site's layout has improved somewhat. I'm nearly finished with the improvements, thanks to a certain MatthewJA. (Am working on turning the links on top into buttons right now, in fact.)

I think it looks a lot better than the default, but that could just be me, so tell me if you like what you're seeing!

Comments:

It's just an edit suspension, nothing too serious. It's just that means I can't edit things on TVTropes, nor can I view their discussion pages for some stupid reason.

But I dunno. They don't tell you why you get suspended; they just suspend you and you're supposed to figure out that you're suspended, then go to the thread for asking for your suspension to be lifted, and in that thread, they tell you why you got suspended in the first place.

Yeah, not an ideal system; I understand why they do it, but still, not ideal.

Like I said, I could probably find out the reason why by simply refreshing the page on which I put in my request for it to be lifted, but ultimately, I've decided it's not that important for me to know why, because it's not that important for me to use TVTropes.

Personally, I think TVTropes is better left "by the fans, for the fans" without direct author intervention. I think all authors should steer clear of editing pages about their own works. I mean, if you see a glaring error on the page you can write a blog post or a comic comment about it and the fans can deal with correcting it themselves. The "Word of God" stuff you see on there is fans citing what the author said elsewhere. Intervening directly seems against the spirit of the thing. Again, that's just my opinion.

An opinion I now fully agree with, for the record. It's still upsetting that the people editing the article clearly did so without having checked the comic out first, but I pretty much told myself that I wouldn't bother editing my own page ever again even if the suspension was lifted, for much that reason--

It shouldn't be done by me. I enjoy doing it a lot (hard not to, considering that I was a serious Trope addict), and I invested a lot in it, but it becomes less valuable for other people, hence why I agree.

I'm one girl, TVTropes is a whole community; one is more important than the other, and I don't have that level of arrogance. :P

5,000 Views!

Comic 12 - 5,000!

Author Notes:

So I randomly checked my stats for my comic, and was completely caught off-guard to learn that I had broken 5,000 views.

I told myself that I would make something once I achieved that milestone, so here we are. I wish I had some sort of unique piece of art to celebrate it, but like I said, this caught me off-guard; I have absolutely nothing prepared to show. :P

Hopefully, I'll be more prepared if I ever break 10,000. It's a large milestone to make, for a small webcomic artist like me.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised I got this high. I knew I was kinda close (in the 4,000s), but I never saw it coming.

You viewers are amazing.
My only regret is that I haven't properly paid your kind views back.

Thanksgiving 2012

Comic 15 - Thanksgiving 2012

Author Notes:

Thought I might as well do a holiday comic sooner or later, and this is what I came up with. I know, the joke's probably not that original and likely has been done to death, but it was just so in character for Nathan to ask and for Kinas to mess with him, so I just couldn't resist. :P

I think it's pretty clear, but Kinas is making Nathan believe that Thanksgiving is Christmas. Yes, Kinas in present times is a little bit of a jerk. :P He is Chaotic Evil, after all. :P

Anyway, for those who read my webcomic that are actually in the USA (there aren't really that many; almost all of my frequent visitor traffic comes from other countries), hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving as much as I'm going to enjoy mine.

Funny thing about Black Friday is that, to me, it's not so much the savings to be thrilled about. Couldn't care less about that. For me, it's the actual experience of shopping on that day which is the draw.

Comments:

Though this is not my most recent comic (as of this comment, that would be comic five), it would appear that way to any casual viewers.

So, I thought I'd just put a note here saying why I'm not updating this week. Rather than simply quote the whole thing, I'll link to my blog post about it, which will give all the details you need to know.
Short version, I'm doing a TOGMarathon in honor of The Other Grey Meat, which is ending next (that is, not tomorrow but the week after tomorrow) Monday. (October 1st, to be more specific.)

Anyway, if people like what they see here, then I'm going to continue making these for all the characters. They take more time than I thought they would, but I still made this in less than a week.

That said, this is the last update you'll have from me for a while; I'm going on vacation, soon, meaning that I'm likely going to miss the three-week anniversary of my comic. Ah, well. What can you expect, when my comic was created around Christmas?

It'll also mark my three-year join-date for ComicFury. December 20th, 2009, while on vacation, I decided to start uploading my comics to a proper comic hosting site. Through TVTropes, I determined ComicFury was my best bet, and I was soon here to stay. :)

Comments:

I hope to get lots of art done--in particular, the Argus-Aria meeting.

It's actually going to be a good experiment in helping me make The Descended--if it works the way I want it to, I might be able to make some pretty amazing comics in future weeks!

Basically, I'm hoping to do a version of the comic traditionally, using as many pages as I need, scan it, and create the comic digitally as I normally do...but now with an excellent panel and perspective guide.

If it works, then my comic will become a whole heck of a lot more organic, rather than always having 400x400 panels. (Or in the case of the Kinas Chronicle, 800x400.)

Fury Day for Ranger

Comic 21 - Happy Fury Day, Ranger

Author Notes:

I ran outta time to make this, so this is all you get, unfortunately; I had planned a full comic, with a picture of my avvy drawn in the style of my comic, and then having someone whose join date is before mine (such as Kyo or Magravan) come in and deliver the line, "If you're old, what does that make ME?" or something along those lines. :P

Butyeah, today is December 20th, 2012. I joined ComicFury on December 20th, 2009, and as such, this is my ComicFury Birthday (Join Date), which I have nicknamed my Fury Day.

The "Who's online?" can be found when you browse the forum, and if you look at the bottom at a time I'm on, I'll always be near the top.

As far as I can tell, that's 'cause the names are ordered chronologically. And as such, I'm before a significant number of them. Obviously, since CF was over a year old before I joined, I'm not consistently AT the front, but I'm always NEAR it, because most of the people who are older than me are either not on the forum, not on the forum regularly, or on the forum at a time that I myself am not.

So I always end up with that feeling, of, "Dang, I didn't know I was that old." when it comes to ComicFury members. :P

I wish I had time to make a better comic, but alas, if I did what I wanted, by the time I'd finish it'd no longer actually be my Fury Day. :P

Argus's Progression

Comic 23 - Argus's Progression

Author Notes:

This is something I quickly threw together to show how my characters (Argus in particular) have progressed throughout the ages of my comic. I figured it was a decent way to start the new year.

But speaking of the new year...the reason the comic tells you to check the author's note (that's this!) is that I have an important announcement:

Yes, I was serious when I made my resolution to devote myself to The Descended...but No, I will not be updating every week--not yet, anyway; updates if I did them would be filler, and my archive is already incredibly clogged with it: 80% of my comic is filler, and I want to fix that.
...Which means that, Yes, my comic is going on a brief hiatus while I work on getting things up and running, but No, this will not be a months-long (or even years-long) hiatus; at most, it'd be 'til the end of January, though I'm hoping to be finished far before then. (We'll see.)

Soyeah, temporary update hiatus while I work on 1: establishing my new art, and 2: how to get the filler out of the archives.

Lack of updates every weak won't translate to lack of work every week; it'll translate into the opposite--me doing an extremely large amount of work.

Which is why I'm not saying "see ya later"; I'm not leaving and am continuing to work, so I'm still here. :P
(Though...maybe I should, since you won't check in 'til later...... :P)

I've found that just TRYING to update every week can make a big difference. My main struggle right now is that I'm drawing a story that someone else is writing, so I have to wait for him to get off his butt and finish the script. :)

Twenty Subscribers Image

Comic 26 - 20 subscribers!

Author Notes:

So if you read my blog, you'd have seen that I got sick, and wouldn't update this week.

To make it up to you, I decided to release this sketch. I'm uploading this while still sick (Saturday), but hopefully by the time you see it on Monday, I'll be recovered.

Anyway, recognize this guy?

...Okay, so I guess I need to refresh your memory. It's been a while since he appeared, and when he last did, it was in sprite form. Way back here, you'll recognize the swords, and maybe the shoulders. (And with luck, the hair.)

And made another appearance in the Kinas Chronicle, which is currently at this comic. (Note that the link may change when I finally put the work into cleaning up my archive.)

It is, of course, Nathan Betrax, now despriteified. (That's totally a word. :P) I was actually anticipating having this image be released much later in the comic, but owing to a combination of my hiatus and you guys being awesome (I continued receiving subscribers and never losing any), I reached my benchmark of 20 much earlier in the comic than planned.

Basically, in the comic, what you've seen mostly of Nathan (even in his limited appearances, though if I was where I wanted to be in the story you'd see a lot more of those :P) is a comic relief character, naive, foolish, largely ineffective, and basically a massive meat shield taking constant punishment and abusement. (WARNING: LINK IS TO TVTROPES! ABANDON HOPE, YE WHO ENTER!)

This image is meant to demonstrate him in one of his badass moments, explaining why he remains on the team despite his appearances. He's using one of two techniques unique to his bloodline, the Frozen Phoenix, which is basically meant to portray him as a physical embodiment of a phoenix that has frozen flames.

(Basically, Hyōrinmaru, but a bird instead of a dragon. :P That's the main reason I wanted to draw this; I set out with the mindset, "Draw Nathan as if he were Toshiro Hitsugaya!" :P)

For the curious, the other technique is the Anti-Count wave, which you'll probably see in the comic sooner. (The difference is that the frozen phoenix merges fire and ice into Nathan, whereas the anti-count wave has fire and ice collide in a matter similar to matter and antimatter, creating an external blastwave.)

Anyway, I have to say that overall, I'm quite pleased with the image, and quite frankly, it's probably the best thing I've ever drawn. There are flaws, of course, which I can ramble on all day about, but the main ones which I'm sure a critic would point out:

-Yes, the wings are out of perspective. Artistic oversight of mine. Nathan's rotated to the left, whereas the wings are straight (or, if rotated at all, rotated to the right!), and I didn't notice until after they were drawn. I put too much time into having drawn the wings, though, to scrap them, so I just elected to ignore 'em. :P

-The talons on his feet don't mesh very well (in fact, his feet look horrible in comparison to the rest of him), because they were added in at the last minute. They were meant to be incorporated from the start, but I forgot about 'em. :P Which meant that when they were added, I had to put them over the feet, rather than incorporating them into the feet as originally intended.

-The background is nothing fancy. It's basically just a blue, with an orange fog (at reduced opacity) to give something resembling interest in it. It's pretty boring overall, and not very exciting. I realize that Nathan's supposed to be the star, but as far as abstract backgrounds go, I still was hoping for something better.

-I'm a bit iffy about my color choice overall. I'm not entirely sure how much contrast there is, and how easy it is to tell the difference between metal (arms and chest), leather (shoulders and knees), and clothing (the textured part). Also somewhat ties into my choice for lighting, which again was mostly manual. :P (I envisioned light from three sources--above as if from the son, coming from the perspective of the audience and hitting him directly, and a third from the wings themselves. I'll be struggling with that concept my whole life. :P)

-And this is a bit of a smaller one, but I couldn't find a good font for the text. I defaulted to Arial, but I wanted something fancier. Similarly, my word choice is simple and blunt, but also kinda bland. You viewers are awesome and deserve a heck of a lot better than those few words.

Again, I have to thank you all, for sticking with me all this time, and tolerating my absolute lack of skill in so many things. It's your help--via subscribing, commenting, critiquing, or so much as viewing this comic!--that makes it so that I can slowly but surely learn to not have no skill. :P

...And sorry for the ramble. So much for reducing my word usage. :P

For the curious, this is how the sketch started, this was the finalized sketch version, and this is the actual size version of the digital version. (One thing which disappointed me was that in the transition, Nathan's square jaw was lost. :/)